Best Of

The CAM system seems to be a lot more mature than I would have guessed given where it is in the development cycle.

Is/will there be a utility available to create machine definitions and post processor generation or will these only be available directly from Onshape?

Will TCPC be supported for 5-axis work?

I'm really glad you made this point here, because I just dipped my toes into Onshape and I'm mystified by the lack of a tier between their free and first paid tier. If they had a small step up from free to get your drawings private, perhaps without direct support, they'd draw a lot more people in. How can one, as a hobbyist or startup, even experiment with something they could foresee as a viable business when their drawings are out in the public.

I was made an offer I can't refuse to get into the paid tier but then what do I do when I have to pay full price? A price I simply cannot afford.

That said, I commend them for at least having a free tier to play with. I'm just saddened that I have no inexpensive options for private storage and cannot afford the paid tier with no income from the investment. I think they would get a lot of people willing to pony up a few extra bucks for private storage that can't go all the way.

I used the hobby version for a year at home before discovering OS. If a company used that, I'd quit on the spot. It'sfine for hobby of simple trinkets, but try making a product with it and you'll go jump out a window.

Edit: the above was for the CAD. The CAM, I actually still use (export OS step to it), and find its pretty good. Design work in CAD, no way. You can't even reorder a complex history tree because it's not labeled, and you can't see what feature is what. Its a pure guess.

I think Onshape has a lot of benefits in the educational sector - every student just having to get an account, assignable exercises - hard to beat.
And it is great for hobbyists who can use the free version, which is indeed less frustrating than e.g. Fusion.
Onshape is in a very good position to be attractive to these groups. But they don't have any realistic offer for them.

Instead they try to fight for pros that are either used to certain more expensive but also more capable software, having experience there for decades or are bound to this software because the file format is obligatory for exchange with partners. The two main reasons why these companies can ask for as much as they do.

Many startups I know who don't have such constraints just use Fusion. It is the natural choice over Onshape because Onshape doesn't make them a competitive offer: Onshape is more than four times as expensive, less capable and even more lock-in than Fusion with no possibility to export files with history staying intact. And many just don't yet know whether their idea will fly as a product. They start working in their freetime on something new and see where it goes - perhaps it stays a hobby, perhaps it gets a product that is worth to build a startup around. These "6 month for free" offers aren't helping much. First because they are only for people who have already started their startup with funding etc. And second because you lose access to the editable models unless you pay four times more for the rest of the time you need it afterwards.

Imho Onshape have a very compelling product. But I don't get why they position it exclusively in a segment where people have several good reasons to just stay with what they have. And on the other side having no reasonable offer for a lot of new people who would gladly pay to step up from their educational or free plans to start working on promising ideas, using CAM with their 3 axis CNCs in homes and maker spaces, hoping to make their ideas fly. But not at the price of two to three additional monthly rents, every year from now on.

@nick_papageorge_dayjob Creo and SW are indeed priced higher, but Fusion is the critical threat when it comes to CAM and small companies. Take a look at their pricing.

Are you kidding? Other common CAD programs like Creo and SW are about 4,000 USD per year, and they don't have PDM or CAM at that price. OS is a bargain for companies.